Scripture Blog

This weblog is my personal online scripture journal. I try to read the scriptures each morning as I exercise on my cross-trainer. It has a great impact on my life and my testimony of the Savior and his restored church. The journal is really for my own benefit but I have set it up as a web log in hopes to benefit anyone else that may be interested. "For he that diligently seeketh shall find; and the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost..." 1 Nephi 10:19

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Numbers 1

We learn of the Levite men -

"...thou shalt appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of testimony, and over all the vessels thereof, and over all things that belong to it: they shall bear the tabernacle, and all the vessels thereof; and they shall minister unto it, and shall encamp round about the tabernacle.
51 And when the tabernacle setteth forward, the Levites shall take it down: and when the tabernacle is to be pitched, the Levites shall set it up: and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death.
52 And the children of Israel shall pitch their tents, every man by his own camp, and every man by his own standard, throughout their hosts.
53 But the Levites shall pitch round about the tabernacle of testimony, that there be no wrath upon the congregation of the children of Israel: and the Levites shall keep the charge of the tabernacle of testimony."  (Old Testament | Numbers 1:50 - 53)

Of the remaining tribes -

"...on the east side toward the rising of the sun shall they of the standard of the camp of Judah...And those that do pitch next unto him shall be the tribe of Issachar...Then the tribe of Zebulun..."  (Old Testament | Numbers 2:3 - 7)

On the south side shall be the standard of the camp of Reuben...And those which pitch by him shall be the tribe of Simeon...Then the tribe of Gad: and the captain of the sons of Gad..."  (Old Testament | Numbers 2:10 - 14)

"On the west side shall be the standard of the camp of Ephraim...And by him shall be the tribe of Manasseh...Then the tribe of Benjamin..."  (Old Testament | Numbers 2:18 - 23)

"The standard of the camp of Dan shall be on the north side...And those that encamp by him shall be the tribe of Asher...Then the tribe of Naphtali..."  (Old Testament | Numbers 2:25 - 29)

This Levites were not given a specific camp but was to administer with the tabernacle.  The sons of Aaron which were Levites were to administer ordinances and sacrifices, where the sons of Levites where to service the tabernacle.  This is much the same in our day.  Joseph Fielding Smith explained -

“The Aaronic Priesthood is divided into the Aaronic and the Levitical, yet it is but one priesthood. This is merely a matter of designating certain duties within the priesthood. The sons of Aaron, who presided in the Aaronic order, were spoken of as holding the Aaronic Priesthood; and the sons of Levi, who were not sons of Aaron, were spoken of as the Levites. They held the Aaronic Priesthood but served under, or in a lesser capacity, than the sons of Aaron” (Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, 3: 86)